Since its discovery almost a quarter of a century ago, phenylbutazone (4-n-butyl-1,2-diphenyl-3,5-pyrazolidinedione) has dominated the field of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs despite the fact that it has several serious toxic effects of which ulcerogenesis and fluid retention are probably the most frequent.
The most probable reason for the continued success of phenylbutazone is that none of the numerous modifications of its structure nor the even more numerous attempts to design novel structures with anti-inflammatory activity have resulted in a truly successful separation of desired pharmacological activity and undesired toxicity.